


the kids aren't alright

by kathillards



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/M, movie universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 13:37:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8250986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/pseuds/kathillards
Summary: "I'm not going to die. Are you with me?" —- KimZack, reboot!verse.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beatswords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beatswords/gifts).



> you: pearl we know nothing about these rangers-  
> me: shut up and let me have my asian perfection dream ship in peace

**the kids aren't alright**

_and with the black banners raised  
as the crooked smiles fade  
former heroes who quit too late  
who just wanna fill up the trophy case again_

_—_ fall out boy, the kids aren't alright

-:-

His chair has been moved, which is his first sign that something is different about his rooftop hideaway today, even though the weather is normal and everything else looks like it’s in place.

“So,” Kimberly says, startling him into a defensive position when he whirls to find her standing there, twirling one of his gloves around in her hand, “this is where you hide out when you’re too cool to attend school, huh?”

“Give that back,” Zack says, and she doesn’t offer any resistance when he takes his glove back and sends her a look. “Are you here for a reason?”

****“Oh, yeah, lots of reasons,” she says, crossing her arms and meeting his gaze with a fierceness he wouldn’t have expected from former Angel Grove queen bee, Kimberly Hart. “Number one, you should be in school, with the rest of us mortals.”

“Mortals,” he echoes, a faint smile on his face. _Mortal_ is not a word he had ever imagined would apply to Kimberly. He leans closer, watching her eyes flicker - not in fear, maybe in surprise - as he does. “Are you gonna make me?”

“Okay, drop the act,” Kimberly scoffs, turning her head, newly-short curls bobbing and nearly smacking him in the face, he’d gotten way too close. “I _saw_  you running away from the police, remember? I was right there with you. Don’t expect me to believe you wouldn’t care if I called the cops on you.”

“For what?” Zack challenges, watching her move, eyes tracking her limber legs and the way her fingers curl. She walks like a gymnast, like she owns all that she surveys, and he wonders how Angel Grove looks to her in the honey-gold sunshine of the late afternoon, all sprawled out and hers for the taking, if she so chose.

“For playing hooky?” she prompts, rolling her eyes when he fakes a blank look at her. “Whatever, stay up here if you want. I just thought I’d come tell you that we - ”

“Who’s _we_?” he asks, raising his eyebrows. Kimberly stops, mouth twisting, and he almost breaks into a smile at the sight of her being so annoyed. It takes a lot to cut through her mean girl act; he knows from the past few years of high school.

“Jason, Billy, and _me_ ,” she clarifies, as if her being there is a good enough reason for him to go. Maybe it is. “We’re gonna go back there after school today.”

“Sounds fun,” Zack remarks, rolling his eyes and turning back to his martial arts equipment. “I hope you guys enjoy being crushed by rocks. I’ll be here if you need me.”

“You’ll be there,” Kimberly states, and he would buy her confidence if he couldn’t see the look in her eyes, the way she studies him, carefully, thoughtfully, trying to analyze him.

“How do you figure that?” he asks, deciding to play, and she steps around his chair to stand in front of him, interrupting his view of the slow sunset blooming over Angel Grove, although she’s maybe far more prettier than the horizon line.

“Because you’re just like me,” she says. He knows she must be satisfied with the look on his face - on no planet would anyone ever compare Zack Taylor to Kimberly Hart, at least not till now, not till _her_  - because she smiles like the cat that caught the canary. “Too cool for school doesn’t apply to us mortals, Zack.”

The way she says _us mortals_ , grouping him in with her, grouping them with everyone else, when he knows they’ve spent their whole high school lives elevated, watching everyone scurry around below them on the ground, it makes him pause. His heartbeat suddenly feels incredibly loud in his ears, like the reminder of his own mortality, or maybe the way she’s looking at him, has his whole body on alert.

Kimberly pulls herself up on her tiptoes to look him directly in the eyes, her voice low and determined when she says, “ _I’m_  not going to die.” The black power coin is burning a hole in his back pocket, her words bringing him back, irresistibly, to the sense of danger and magic and evil that had hung in the air that night they had discovered the coins. He knows what she means, and he knows that she means it when she says she’s not going to let whatever’s out there kill her.

“Are you with me?” she asks, so close he can feel her breath fluttering in the air between them, and he doesn’t answer, but he thinks she probably knows the answer is _yes_  when he doesn’t stop staring at her as she saunters off the roof with all the grace of a girl who knows she’s won.

 


End file.
